Norwich-based animation studio, Curveball Media, has created an animated short to help The Wellcome Trust raise $8 billion for research into COVID-19. Scripted and designed to appeal to people from every nationality, the animation was presented to global leaders, G7 and G20 policy makers, the IMF, World Bank, business leaders and philanthropists as part of the EU Commission’s Global Coronavirus Response event on May 4th, 2020.

“One of the challenges with creating pieces like this is connecting emotionally with a wide range of people from a huge array of nationalities and backgrounds, scientific or otherwise,” commented Curveball creative director, Oliver Lawer. “Everybody is being affected by the virus in different ways and we needed to create a piece that pulled people together. Made them see and feel the wider picture and impact of what could be achieved by collective action. The message had to move doubters from a position of ‘I won’t fund this,’ to B, ‘I will fund this.’”

“It’s incredible. Really,” added Curveball strategic director, Daniel Spencer. “To be able to work on projects like this gives us the opportunity to make an immediate difference to something that’s affecting everyone on the planet right now.”

“We asked Curveball to script and design a video that would make a clear and compelling case for investing in research, and how research is an essential part of any response to epidemics,” noted Wellcome Trust head of audiences and evaluation, Lara Clements. “We needed the video to clarify what research gaps exist and why, and the urgency behind this new call for funding. That message also had to encourage a sense of hope around collective solutions and progress being made. And we believe it does that very well.”